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Thursday, October 28, 2010

If you believe in reincarnation - pray not to become a woman in rural China in your next life.

Status of females in Chinese villages is not enviable from birth to death: three evidences to it are reflected in 1) statistics of infant mortality breakup by gender, 2) statistics of females suicides and 3) statistics of domestic violence.

The latter - violence in family only recently came into public light. The term "domestic violence" was included in Chinese Law for the first time only in 2001. And the first court decision protecting woman's safety from family abuse was made in 2008.

All that on the background of figures showing that domestic violence occurs in about 30% of Chinese families...

Unfortunately most of the victims prefer to live with it in fear of losing their face or being retaliated by their own family members.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

If you have a blog in English language which is somehow related to China, most chances are that you have registered it in Chinalyst directory (which aggregates different blogs about China).

And as with any site there is a person behind Chinalyst as well. His name is Gilad but he is better known to fellow bloggers as Fili (not coincidentally he is that same Fili who runs Fili's world).

Few months ago I had a pleasure to meet Fili in face in Tel-Aviv. He came back to Israel for summer holidays from Hong Kong (where he pursues his PhD in management).

I was very happy to meet someone whom I already "knew" before in a virtual way. As I expected Fili appeared to be a lively and pleasant guy. I, however, couldn't know that he is also a very humble and kind person who is always ready to help others.

Actually, when one month ago I had a problem with my blog being suspended for technical problems - he didn't spare his time to give me some very helpful advices. Thanks!

If you visit Fili's world you will pay attention that its author runs not less than 15 other internet projects - most of which are community websites. Many of them are related to mainland China, Taiwan and HongKong.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Among them you can find also nice videos with short lessons on different topics.

And often they are led by pretty Chinese girls. But you wouldn't complain about that, right?

For example, if you make a search on Google for "Chinese girls" the first result will be unfortunately not my blog LoveLoveChina :-( , but the Youtube video "How To Pickup Chinese Girls". Go and watch it - it could be useful ;-) .

However, it's very difficult to find a full-blown video-course that would cover most of the topics for beginner's (or intermediate) level.

It seems that most of people creating such courses struggle with difficulties in producing the video-content and have to quit in the middle. Here you can find a first-hand experience of Peggy who ran "Peggy Teaches Chinese" and eventually stopped.

Today I found another interesting series of videos. Unfortunately, it also seems incomplete.

But I am sure that you will enjoy few lessons available with the cute and pretty Tingting.

Shenzhen Transportation

Sichuan Spicy Cuisine

Sunday, October 17, 2010

By taking some numbers and applying to them the four basic arithmetic operations people produce bunch of statistical indices.

Someone in UNDP (United Nations Development Program) decided to take GDI (gender-related development index) and divide it by HDI (human development index).

The result is supposed to reflect the gender imbalance inside HDI and it features under the headline "Building the capabilities of women".

China is number 10 in the world! I really don't get it: how can we achieve such result when China is the only country in the world where female commit suicide more often than men? And when the gender imbalance is one of the most worrying demographical issues?

Egyptian young men have recently been seeking to marry Chinese women in an attempt to escape the hefty costs of a traditional Egyptian marriage as well as have partners well known for their loyalty as wives.

A considerable number of Egyptian men, mostly over the age of 35, contacted the Chinese embassy in Cairo to inquire about the possibility of marrying Chinese women. Others have been seeking Chinese brides through matchmaking websites.

Despite confirming receiving requests from Egyptian men, the embassy denied any involvement in the arrangement or facilitation of marriage.

In fact, the embassy expressed its reservations on the way Chinese women were treated as merchandise by the Egyptian media.

“Our government promotes freedom of choice in marriage and a Chinese woman can marry a foreigner,” embassy spokesman said in a statement. “This does not mean we have brides for sale. The Chinese law prohibits treating marriage as trade.”

The financial condition of Egyptian youths is the major reason behind their preference of Chinese brides. In a traditional Egyptian marriage, the groom is required to pay dowry, buy an apartment, and give the bride a diamond ring or a gold gift. On the other hand, Chinese women do not have any conditions when it comes to money.In addition, many Egyptian men view Chinese women as perfect wives since because they are pretty, active, and smart as well as very skilled in cooking and other household chores. They are also well trained in martial arts, thus capable of defending themselves as well as their husbands.Obedience and loyalty are also among the most distinguished features of Chinese women as, according to Egyptian males, their culture dictates their subordination to their husbands.For Egyptian men, the Chinese woman has a very important advantage: her mother will not accompany her, which means the husband will be spared the trouble the mother-in-law’s interference in the couple’s life. The phenomenon of seeking Chinese brides did not stop at major cities like Cairo and Alexandria, but extended to small towns in Upper Egypt and the Nile Delta and Egyptian families who have unmarried girls started expressing their concerns over the Chinese invasion.

The remarkable increase on the demand for Chinese wives drove Egyptian MP Salah al-Sayegh to submit a questioning to Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif. The phenomenon, Sayegh argued, is aggravating the spinsterhood problem in Egypt, especially that recent statistics by National Center for Social and Criminological Research revealed that 28.4% of Egyptian women are unmarried and that more than 2,700 try to commit suicide because of spinsterhood. Contrary to the MP’s view, sociology professor Dr. Samia al-Saati views the Chinese invasion as a healthy trend as it teaches Egyptian girls and their families a lesson.“Men’s preference of Chinese wives will teach girls and their families to stop draining the groom financially,” she said. “In Egypt, marriage is all about fake appearances. The Chinese bride is the magical solution.”Saati added that experience proved that such marriages are, in most cases, successful since Chinese women proved to be better wives.“Chinese women manage the house and raises children in a much better way than Egyptian girls who are very spoilt and allow their families to interfere in her affairs, which contributed to the rising divorce rates.”

Sociology professor Dr. Suhair Sanad begs to differ. She argues that seeking this kind of marriages is nothing more than a form of delinquency like unofficial (urfi) marriage, in which the couple writes their own marriage contract, or blood marriages, in which they mix their blood together as a sign of creating an eternal bond.“These marriages indicate the deterioration of values in society and the extreme lack of trust between Egyptian men and women.”This lack of trust, she explained, is largely because the girl feels insecure about the man she is about to marry, so her family starts burdening him with exaggerated financial demands. This, in turn, makes him feel exploited.Sanad also argues that the marriage between an Egyptian man and a Chinese is not likely to be successful.“There is a huge gap as far as culture and values are concerned, and there is also the language barrier.”Dr. Mustafa Ghalwash, professor of theology at al-Azhar University, stated that marriage with a Chinese woman is not valid.“A Muslim man should basically marry a Muslim woman, but if he has to marry a non-Muslim then she has to belong to one of the religions endorsed by Islam, not a pagan religion.”Ghalwash called upon parents to go easy on suitors and not to drain them financially. He cited a saying in which prophet Mohamed advises parents to accept the suitor as long he is religious and well-mannered.‘The prophet also said that the bride with the lesser dowry is more blessed.” (Translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid).

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

The photo scandal of Edison Chen - prominent figure in Hong Kong entertainment industry -is old "news". If, however, you don't know this juicy story - check it here. And for those who don't want to waste their time to read it - the summary is: Edison Chen had a private collection of intimate pictures of himself with different celebrity women. These pictures leaked to internet in 2008 and became a source of police investigation.

I am posting the video below not because of the content. My purpose is totally different. It so happened that today I stumbled upon this link and the video itself played for a while without sound.

And it was quite entertaining to see the mimics of the actor(!) who couldn't help displaying so many signals of someone who is embarrassed (and possibly lying). If you want to watch a good "lab" on body language course - go no further and play this video with sound off (later you can repeat it with sound on - and compare your feeling when you watch the person and hear him simultaneously).

Monday, October 11, 2010

I bet that most of you have heard about the popular Korean girl-group "Wonder Girls": they made history in the last year by becoming the first Korean group whose single "Nobody" entered the "Billboard Hot 100".

JYP Entertaiment (the label which patronizes "Wonder Girls") recently created another girl band - "Miss A", and they seem to be on the right way to repeat their "elder sisters" success.

The zest of "Miss A" is in the fact that two of four members are Chinese and two - Koreans.

I suggest you to watch their debut single "Bad Girl Good Girl" and try to guess who of the girls are Chinese and who - Korean ;-) .

Friday, October 8, 2010

I guess the same question asked himself Ben - the guy who last year won in the competition "Best Job In The World" - when he was reading the itinerary of his visit to Hainan island.

But there was no mistake...

Someone in China decided to follow the footsteps of Queensland Tourism and promote Hainan Island. However, the future "ambassador" of tourism in Hainan is chosen among Chinese girls only. Currently 6 finalists left (the winner will be announced in November).

Monday, October 4, 2010

Hmm... maybe it's because I know Chinese - so when I hear someone talking/singing, I pay attention at WHAT they say rather than HOW they say? But here is something that happened yesterday and made me listen to one song in a different way.

I was listening to Guang Liang on laptop. My boyfriend (who doesn't speak Chinese) was sitting in another room. Then he came and stood behind my back looking at the laptop's screen. After the song finished I turned to him and was very surprised with his facial expression. It was an expression of strong displeasure.

I couldn't understand why. Actually, though he doesn't understand the lyrics - he likes Chinese music (and Guang Liang as well) very much. So I asked him what he was thinking about?

He said: "My god, how can the guy fall in love with that girl? It is such a torture to listen to her voice... Feels like nail scratching glass!"